One of the best place to get fresh, delicious, amazing seafood is right at/by fish market. I have been wanting to visit one of the local’s restaurants by fish market for a long time… I finally got a chance to visit one in Kashiwa, Japan! There are several restaurants in a row right by the fish market, all side by side. Most of them had photos of their food on the window or on the stand board in front of the restaurant, but Meshiya keeps it simple with chalk board, and writing their specials of the day. No photo, no fuss. I say you can attract more customers with photos of food, but you have to be brave and adventurous sometimes to find awesome food…
As soon as you walk in, the female owner welcome you with smile, and tell you to sit wherever you like. She was dressed in old-fashion kitchen work attire (?), and had that strong grand-ma feel to her. The interior is quite simple, homey, cozy, very unassuming. They have table seating and raised tatami seating. If you just want a quick eat-and-go, then you can sit at the table, or if you are more interested in chilled out, relaxing kind, then take your shoes off and get up on the tatami! Of course, that is what we did. We were in it to really enjoy the food!
We were there for some kind of seafood, so even though they had other traditional Japanese home-style dishes, we reviewed all the seafood dishes. We ordered 3 different sets; Sashimi set, Chu-toro set, and Naka-ochi set.
The Sashimi set (1,000 yen, roughly about $10) came with fresh fish sashimi of the day, rice, miso soup, and pickles. The sashimi consisted of tuna, squid, sardines, and bonito. Each one very fresh and delicious! The portion was kind of small overall, but still enough to get full and satisfied.
The Chu-toro set (1,000 yen, roughly about $10) came with mid-grade fatty tuna and squid, rice, miso soup, and pickles. The tuna was fresh, sliced thick, very delicious! It’s not Oh-toro, which is the highest grade fatty tuna, but some say chu-toro it is tastier than oh-toro. Either way, you can’t beat the super fresh sashimi of any kind!
The Nakaochi set (700 yen, roughly about $7) came with tuna nakaochi, which is left-over flesh on the spine of tuna. It is scraped from the bone of medium fatty tuna. It was again fresh, tasty, delicious! The price is really great also, where else can you get a super fresh sashimi set at this price point?
The female owner of the restaurant was nice, didn’t seem very friendly, but yet, she (secretly) loved us and wanted to give us an extra treat for coming in that day, by giving us cooked bonito for free! It was simmered in their homemade sauce, and it was very tasty! On top of that, right before we left, she gave us handful candies… Yes, she was super sweet lady after all, and we absolutely loved her.
We got to enjoy fresh fish and home cooked dishes at a very homey atmosphere among some fish market workers. It was such a treat! They have several other restaurants here, I would definitely need to try more places! If you are also seafood lover, and loves Japanese food, you need to get there, ASAP!
Meshiya – 69-1 Wakashiba Kashiwa Chiba, Japan
めし家 – 千葉県 柏市 若柴 69-1